Recession is a terrifying word for small business owners. They immediately start running their numbers over and over. What expenses can be cut? Are you looking at laying off staff? Will your company survive a recession?
Figuring out how to run a recession proof business can set your head spinning. However, we’re here to tell you that your business can not only survive a recession, but you can actually set it up to thrive under tough economic conditions.
Run a Recession Proof Business
Stay in Touch with your Customers
Staying in touch with your customers is always important. However, it becomes even more important in order to run a recession proof business. You need to be regularly communicating with your customers via social media, email or even an old school phone call depending on the industry. As business owners, we assume that once someone becomes a client, we don’t have to market to them anymore. That’s just not true. People go on with their lives, they get busy. It’s up to you to remind them about your business and provide valuable information in order to retain your customers.
Know Your Numbers
As a business owner, you’re wearing multiple hats and stretching yourself to keep your business moving forward. Often, we see business owners overlook important items like a monthly P&L or forecasting their business. In order to run a recession proof business, you should be setting aside time monthly to review your numbers and keep them up to date. Items you should be reviewing are money in vs money out, your conversion rates, average sale price, database growth, pipeline of clients, leads, etc. These numbers can vary slightly by industry, but the practice is the same.
Strengthen Relationships
Business owners need a solid network to thrive in any industry. Take time to list your top vendors, clients, colleagues, raving fans etc. These are the people who support your business and who you could support in their business. Make sure that you’re speaking regularly with these people. Get coffee, mastermind within your industry, find out what specifically you can do to support their business. Strengthening these connections benefits you and the people around you and it also benefits your business.
Support Your Team
To run a recession proof business, it’s important that you have top-notch employees that believe in your vision for the company. You’ll want to make sure that you’re going above and beyond for these employees. Make sure that they are paid their value. Then go past that and see if there are other ways to acknowledge their value. Sit with each of them regularly to understand their goals and make sure that you’re supporting them. Know what excites them about their business and learn how to be the best manager or mentor for them.
Solidify Your Digital Presence
One of the biggest mistakes that we see business owners make is not having a strong digital presence. Time and time again we see owners that have bad contact information, the wrong hours, no local SEO,no reviews, etc. 76% of consumers look at a companies online presence before engaging with them.
Beyond that, 45% of customers are more likely to engage with your business if you have a strong digital presence. This is why it’s so important that you optimize your digital presence. Now, this isn’t just a one-time thing. You need to ensure that you’re updating your information online regularly, weekly or monthly depending on your industry. Your business should be providing valuable content online, you should be actively seeking reviews.
Provide Good Customer Service
Customer retention is a cornerstone for all businesses. The best practice to retaining clients is to provide a great experience from their first interaction through their last. You need to ensure you’re providing clear expectations, exceeding those expectations when possible and constantly communicating to ensure your client is satisfied.
The businesses that we see thrive even under harsh economic conditions are those that provide a high level of customer service. They approach each interaction by leading with value, projecting positivity, and providing clear communication.
Recession Proof Your Business
Taking the time to evaluate and improve your systems and processes around the practices above will ensure that you not only run a recession proof business, but that your business is setup to thrive, no matter the economic conditions.
At Radar Designs, we want your business to succeed. If you’re interested in skyrocketing your business to success, contact us today for an initial consultation.
